European Challenge Tour: Stephen Browne hauled himself back into contention to retain his place on the main European Tour at the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final by scything 10 strokes off his opening round score to post a course-record 65 on day two of the European Challenge Tour's most crucial event of the season.
The 32-year-old Dubliner, who is 24th on the rankings, needs to finish among the top 20 come the end of play on Saturday evening if he is to maintain the Tour card he won at the final stage of the 2004 Qualifying School.
Should he continue to putt the way he did during the second round at the San Domenico Golf Club, he has every chance of doing just that. Browne putted like a demon to notch seven birdies and move to four under par for the tournament.
"That was probably the best I have putted all year - everything from 40 feet and under felt like it was going to go in and you don't get too many days like that in a season," said Browne.
"I think that's my lowest round of the year and it's nice to have a course record. It was good to make the move today, because I had to. You don't want to leave yourself with too much to do at the weekend, especially this week with so much at stake.
"In saying that, though, I didn't feel there was that much pressure on me today. Pressure for me is when you are not playing well and you are squeezing it round, hitting it between trees and stuff like that. But I was comfortable out there because I am playing well.
"I need to finish top-three this week, but you can drive yourself crazy setting targets so I am just going to get on with playing good golf and see what happens. Three weeks ago I could have bee playing on the Europro Tour next year, so to have the chance of a Tour card is great."
With their own places on Tour already secured, Michael Hoey and David Higgins posted second scores of 72 and 74 at San Domenico. That left Hoey on three under, with Higgins level par.
Colm Moriarty, meanwhile, got his game back on track with a three-under 69, but looks out of the running after his first round 79.
Marco Ruiz of Paraguay moved into pole position yesterday, posting a half-way total of nine-under-par 135 to lead Scotland's Marc Warren by a one.
For Ruiz (30), 15th on the rankings, victory would guarantee one of the best Tour cards available through the Challenge Tour.
LeadingScores
135 - M Ruiz (Par) 68 67. 136 - M Warren (Sco) 67 69. 137 - J Hepworth (Eng) 67 70, F Widmark (Swe) 69 68, M Jonzon (Swe) 71 66. 138 - LS James (Eng) 68 70, B Barham (Eng) 67 71, K Sullivan (Wal) 72 66, R Gomez (Arg) 69 69, D Vancsik (Arg) 69 69, C Monasterio (Arg) 69 69. 139 - O David (Fra), R McEvoy (Eng) 71 68, D Lucas (Eng) 69 70, A Canete (Arg) 71 68. 140 - G Davies (Eng) 69 71, P Dwyer (Eng) 73 67, C Suneson (Spn) 69 71, S Browne (Irl) 75 65, S Fernandez (Arg) 71 69. 141 - A Romero (Arg) 70 71, M Hoey (NIrl) 69 72, T Karjalainen (Fin) 70 71. 142 - D Dixon 74 68, M Higley (Eng) 74 68, T Whitehouse (Eng) 72 70, S Jeppesen (Swe) 71 71, B Sutterfield (US) 72 70. 143 - A S Hansen (Den) 70 73, P Whiteford (Sco) 74 69, S P Webster (Eng) 70 73. 144 - S Walker (Eng) 69 75, D Higgins (Irl) 70 74, A Butterfield (Eng) 73 71. 145 - R Fisher (Eng) 74 71, I Pyman (Eng) 73 72, M Carballo (Arg) 72 73. 146 - J Edfors (Swe) 71 75, S Davis (Eng) 76 70, M Kirk (Rsa) 76 70. 148 - J Heath (Eng) 77 71, S Bebb (Wal) 75 73, C Moriarty (Irl) 79 69.
